The S.P.V. and our
This time I focus my half-charged batteries on that popular Merida phenomenon, the ever-popular and much under-appreciated S.P.V. (Secretaria de Proteccion (!) y Vialidad (!!) - also known as the policia) ; in particular those silly traffic cops you see all over the place swinging their whistles, bats or other things too crude to mention here.
shiny new overpass...How about that useless patrol car under the Progreso highway overpass at the periferico? What do they do there all day? Are they waiting for someone? The car is always there, cops hanging around outside, hood open as if they are repairing something, lights a-flashin', and you could drive by at 200 kph and they wouldn't budge. What's the point? I don't get it.
While they languish (look it up) there, our all-powerful governor builds a pedestrian overpass at the maquiladoras and there isn't a patrol car to be seen, even though at one point there were painters doing their thing on scaffolding placed ON the highway and all manner of construction equipment around. You'd think a couple of patrol cars hanging around there might slow down traffic a little.
By the way, where have we seen a pedestrian overpass before? I'll give you a hint... CORDEMEX.
And whatever happened to that one? People were less than enthusiastic about climbing up a bunch of stairs after a hard days work - they'd rather dodge traffic any day. NO ONE USED IT. Wake up and smell the maquiladora workers! It doesn't matter how many mallas ciclonicas you put up, the ungrateful populace will begin to carve little holes in it and go back to dodging the traffic on the highway. Perhaps this money could have been more efectivamente used to build say a SCHOOL for the maquiladora workers and their kids? But what do I know anyway.
But hey, now we can put those traffic cops and the tax pesos they cost to good use; they can justify their existence policing the fences and the overpass to make sure no one shirks their civic duty of gratefully climbing up and then down again, and if they catch anyone, they can have a field day with the mordidas, especially on paydays.
I can't wait to see what will happen. In light of the recent demolition of the Cordemex overpass, it all seems a little silly somehow.
But I digress. Let's go back to those shining examples of citizenry, the S.P.V.
What about those motorcycle cops that stand guard over the new glorieta at Carrefour? You know, the ones that lounge under the dead leafless tree and throw their water bottles in the brush after having a drink. They are making sure that no-one is confused by the stop signs in the glorieta, since normal glorieta rules don't apply in this case. Usually, the car in the glorieta has the right of way, but not here. Here the dominant avenue well, predominates and has right of way, and so once in the glorieta you have to stop to let the predominant street (hwy. to Progreso) traffic go by. Not so in the Sam's glorieta which is just as big and 500 meters away. There the rules are different but there's no S.P.V. to instruct us, so normal rules apply.
And speaking of Carrefour, who in the hell is planning all this so-called 'vialidad'? If you have noticed, there are now raised pedestrian crosswalks (megatopes) that lead from nowhere (in the underbrush) across the street to more underbrush. Slow down! There's a cat crossing! Is this part of someone's grand scheme? And if so, where and what is the grand master plan? Do any of us have any right to maybe know WHAT THE HELL THEY ARE DOING? (Do they know what they're doing?) Have you ever tried driving from the Gran Plaza to Carrefour? I do this every day on my way home so I should know... You have to drive through all kinds of little weed and underbrush-overgrown mini-streets between Cordemex and La Gran Plaza to get out of there! These streets were designed for mules and pedestrians! Cordemex was designed for humble workers by some guayabera-clad politician/henequen robber-baron years ago, who never imagined that those humble workers would ever aspire to owning something as expensive as a CAR. Now we have buses trying to do U-turns on 2-meter wide streets, blocking traffic in all kinds of directions for extended periods of time. Where's the S.P.V.? Drinking water and lounging under the periferico overpass and snoozing under the dead leafless tree at the Carrefour glorieta.
Until the S.P.V. can get it's act together and start acting in a coherent and semi-professional manner, with decent wages, basic training and just the tiniest degree of professionalism, my guess is that we will continue to smirk whenever we see them officiously pulling over yet another broken down Nissan pickup truck full of people heading to Progreso, presumably for speeding.
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